2016’s Award-Winning Books on Botany & Horticulture

Available at the Lenhardt Library

Winter is the time to curl up by a fire with all the books you didn’t get to this summer—and this year had some fantastic reads in botany and horticulture. But how do you know what to pick up in a sea of books?

Each year at its annual conference, the Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries (CBHL) awards prizes for the best new works in botany and horticulture that contribute to the body of literature in these fields. Not surprisingly, a selection of these award-winning books are available to be borrowed from the Lenhardt Library. Here are our top four picks—find them online, or check them out on-site on your next Garden visit.

Shopping online? Order through our Amazon Smile link; a portion of your purchase is donated to the Garden.

2016 Award for Significant Contribution to the Literature of Botany or Horticulture:

James Sowerby: The Enlightenment’s Natural Historian
by Paul Henderson

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2015

336 pages; 150 color plates, 30 halftones

ISBN 9781842465967 (hardcover)

Lenhardt Library call number: QH31.S69H46 2015

CHBL is the leading professional organization in the field of botanical and horticultural information services. It is comprised of librarians who work in botanic garden libraries across North America and in university libraries focused on botany and agriculture. Several Lenhardt Library staff (Leora Siegel, Stacy Stoldt, and Donna Herendeen) have served as CBHL board members in the past—and at present.

Leora Siegel

Leora Siegel is the Senior Director of the Lenhardt Library, one of the treasures of the Chicago Botanic Garden. Open to the public 7-days a week, its 150,000-volume collection encompasses resources on gardening, botany, plant conservation, and landscape design, in formats from rare books to e-books. Library initiatives focus on public engagement, collections, and collaborations.